A Puppy, Haystacks and Two Good Months in the Village

After six weeks recovery, I was allowed to return to the village. During the recovery time in Kathmandu, Bill went to Dang Valley in eastern Nepal for nine days. He went there with the Benns, a new Wycliffe team, to help them settle into their new village home and setting. From my journal:

Yesterday we flew to the village--with 10 minutes of very turbulent weather--the plane was bouncing all over the sky and me a dizzy mess.....But God put such joy on actually arriving and knowing He is going to bless us. I've had a real joy and gladness to be here and feel this an answer to prayer. We couldn't drive our van because our tires from Singapore hadn't arrived yet.

The following entries span two months of our life in the village: March and April 1976.

The last few days have been lovely: lots of food gifts from people, even our landlady gave dozens of garlics! Then today Bill started translation work with Kissan and I started teaching Jon, and wham-o. Bill and I had a lengthy discussion-argument about lots of little things that was not governed by love. Jon's been a crank, though he did well in his lessons. There's lots of medical work and Bill had to take one injured man into Bharatpur for treatment, but he and Kissan keep working.

Yesterday there was a big wedding at Baghmara and we rode royally in a tractor. I've been deeply grateful to be completely healthy these last few weeks. Yet now Kunti is quite ill, Jon's got a hacking cough.

Then we got a puppy! The kids named him Frisky. Jon and Jenny loved him. On Friday some village kids stole him from the yard and threw him to some big dogs who attacked him. We've dressed his wounds and prayed and now he is getting better. These same kids tried to break and enter yesterday, but we caught them. The village elders told their parents to reprimand them. We're grateful for their intervention.

Yesterday we took a lovely family walk and climbed a 10 foot haystack at Kissan's. We had a ball frolicking and lying at the top of it and singing Alleluia to God.

A really refreshing wind blew through the 100 foot trees. God is good.

Our weekly mail flight came and brought lots of good letters. So much to be thankful for, even though there's a need for rain here. It's so dusty, with one huge dust storm that swept through our house, even with windows and doors closed.

Now it seems like the whole village is sick--so much disease. One baby died, after it seemed to be recovering. It was not able to urinate. Seems to be a big cause of death and sickness here. Wish we knew the cause. But we know love's the answer. Then I had my first penicillin reaction with Hongari's son--a very bad rash on his body.

Mid-April: Even with the little rain the other night, it's still so very hot. Tons of medical work and still no language helper for the summer. Jon's lessons are over and only one more week in the village for this spring. Our return flight up to Kathmandu on RNAC was very windy and bouncy. We all felt it. But we made it back with gratitude ... for cleanliness. We returned to Kathmandu briefly before heading to Pokhara for five days rest and different scenery.

It was a good two months, with much progress in every area. Relationships were being forged and built up, medical work flourished with village people being healed. I was working with the women on literacy skills, and we were beginning to feel at home in the village. We spent time visiting in other villages too. You can see the kids and Bill waiting for a meal here. You can see the water jug in Bill's hands. They always gave us this to wash our hands before eating. And they always gathered around to stare at the "angrazi" (Literally this means "English" but it refers to all western foreigners.) Note all of Jenny's blond curls too!

Also during these two months Bill was making good progress on Bible translation and Kissan was asking probing questions about Jesus. However, he discovered that the Tharu people had NO knowledge of God and his initial work with people, places and events. This meant that all the New Testament references to the Old Testament didn't make sense to Kissan....or any other Tharu for that matter. This was something of a crisis for Bill: Clearly he would have to provide the background, but why should he be describing the customs of a far-away, obscure people group from 5,000 years ago to a Nepalese farmer? It seemed meaningless.

From Bill's experience:

For about 3 days I stopped and thought about this. Then, suddenly, I realized for the first time that there is no doctrine or teaching in the Bible that isn't situated in a particular time and place. We have to understand the context in order to understand what God was saying and doing. Even Paul's letter to the Romans, sometimes described as the most concise statement of theology in the Bible, was written at a particular time by a particular person to a particular congregation, and as we understand their situation and issues and Paul's message, we understand what God was saying to them.  

Anyway, this released me to begin translating again. So I stopped working on Mark and started translating Genesis to give them the background of God's invasion into the life of Hebrew people for the amazing preparation for Jesus.

Then, it was time to return to Kathmandu.  It was so good to have a van to travel these mountainous roads back and forth between Kathmandu and the village. A normal trip in good weather took 7-8 hours....if the rivers weren't flooded! The rugged beauty is amazing, even through the Raj Path, a winding, always turning road. What a gift all this time in the village was, before the soon-to-come shock and heartbreak.

My Ruptured Tubal Pregnancy and the Miracle of God's Saving Grace

Do you remember reading the dream I had a couple months ago that I was having a baby girl we named Joyanna Adelle Leal? Well, it was real, we were to have a baby girl, but the Lord decided to take her closer to His heart than mine. It was a miracle that we didn't both go to His heart then and there.  

We returned to the village after Christmas, the end of December. Within a week I was in bed with severe cramps. I'm so grateful that Kunti, a Christian friend and house-helper along with Ann Lycett, a dear British friend and school teacher in Kathmandu, came down to the village with us this time, and were able to help out. Eventually the pain subsided and I reengaged daily activities. But then, the next week the pain erupted so severely it was hard to stand up straight.

January 14, 1976: 

The Lord is good. Blessed be His holy Name and Love....Thank-you, Lord. So we're in Kathmandu. Last Wednesday the stomach pains returned along with a migraine. So I took a migraine pill which, we later learned, apparently can cause bleeding in pregnant women. Then I began to spot, enough that we decided to evacuate and leave for Kathmandu.

Bill bundled us on the motorcycle and drove us to the Bharatpur air strip about 10 miles away. We hoped we'd be on time for one of the twice weekly RNAC flights. The plane was there when we got there and, amazingly, there were enough seats for Jenny and me. We took off an hour later. Then, Jonathan and Bill rode the motorcycle up the Raj Path to meet later that day.

Jenny and I were met at the airport by David Meech who got me into a taxi that drove me to Shanta Bhawan, the mission hospital where Jenny had been born. I was immediately admitted to the hospital. Dr. Mary Eldridge, the Queen of Doctors--took such good care. I expected it was a miscarriage, but it wasn't. It turned out to be a ruptured tubal pregnancy.

So she did an emergency surgery to remove the right tube....I am still weak, but am so grateful to be alive and a recipient of His mercy. Turns out that I was the most unusual case of the week in the hospital so all the doctors were in here discussing me. I learned a lot listening to them. Maybe I learned too much--like how many cc's of blood they took from my gut to save my life. But the Lord is faithful.

The pregnancy was ectopic: the fetus was growing in my right fallopian tube. Once it started bleeding, without the emergency intervention, I would have died. The Lord's love surrounded us. Apparently He still had more life for me to live, more work for me to do, more family and friends to love. Of course our hearts were sad to let Joyanna go, but we look forward to one day meeting and spending time with her in Heaven. Here's a picture of how Ethan understood what happened.

So you see how Father protected us: the ectopic pregnancy, the medicine I shouldn't have been taking that caused us to leave early, the availability of a plane and seats on it, and a British doctor that recognized the crisis and dealt with it. Here was something we could not plan for and had no control over. Nor could we have scripted the sequence of just-in-time provisions. Truth, as Mark Twain said, is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.

Imagine....

If Bill hadn't decided to have us leave the village when he did?

If it hadn't been one of the two days RNAC had a flight into Bharatpur with return to Kathmandu?

If they didn't have a few seats left on the plane?

If David Meech hadn't taken me directly to the hospital?

If Dr. Eldridge hadn't recognized what was going on (remember they didn't have ultrasounds there)

If my Father hadn't decided to leave me here all these years?

George Herbert, in 1633, penned the following words and I echo them: "I live to show His power, who once did bring my joys to weep, and now my griefs to sing."

Here's a song to express what gives deep rest in the midst of fears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qec8TMNJEcw&feature=youtu.be

Prelude to a Miracle: Three Weeks in Thailand and Christmas in Kathmandu

After many village challenges, Bill decided we would take a vacation with our SIL friends, Gary and Barb Shepherd and Klaus-Peter and Doris Kugler and all the kids. We found a place in Huahin, Thailand, that was specially created to help missionaries get away and rest. We spent the first night at the CMA headquarters in Bangkok. Everything was flooded. People were using boats to navigate the city. The next day we took a bus four hours south to our destination. We spent a lovely time, a "little bit of Heaven and a gift from the Lord. It was good to meet and talk with other missionaries too.

"The beach was lovely--so perfect for the kids. we had lovely meals and ice cream every day. I gained seven pounds! One day Bill and Jonathan went on a fishing expedition. Jonathan enjoyed this a lot. "

He looks a LOT like Joshua in this picture. Or maybe it's the other way around.

During the last week there a hurricane hit that changed the whole beach. Afterwards there were dead octopi all over it. It was cold ... and sad. And, we had gotten enough rest because we got bored and left three days early. Nepal was more home than ever and we could hardly wait to return.

We saved shopping til the end. What an experience. You can see the monkey and elephant. Bill was pretty brave to let him do that. Our experience in Nepal led us to be very wary of monkeys. But, of course, we were very familiar with elephants. Jon and Jenny both now collect elephant figures and house decorations.

We returned to Kathmandu for Christmas, 1975. Our 55 gallon drum from the US, long overdue, had finally arrived. It turned out to be, as my journal says:

It was a learning Christmas and too materialistic. The kids got so many toys, Jon a train set and Jenny a doll house, plus many, many little things. We thanked the Lord for our friends and the gifts before opening but we hope in the future to have the emphasis more on Him and giving gifts to others as joy.

Before we left for the village. I thought I was pregnant and saw my GYN who tested me and found I was carrying our third child! We were very excited as we had wanted a large family. Little did we know we were very soon heading into the most difficult experience of our years in Nepal and one that almost took my life. This part of God's good plan left us full of tears and full of gratefulness at the same time, as you will read in the next blog!


Some verses express our hearts. A high-school friend of Bill's who is following these blogs (thank you, Wes Goble!) recently shared, "What a life of adventure (suffering) you two led.... Some verses come to mind: 2 Timothy 2:3 'You therefore must endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.' 2 Timothy 2:11,12 'Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.'"

Elephant Rides, Both Kids Learn to Read, Roasted Mouse for Breakfast, and Scenes from Village Living

We loved having visitors in the village and we had lots of them. Many came with all their kids! (No wonder I was tired so much of the time!) Our house was pretty small to have us and another family living in it for up to 4-5 days--plus all the constant village visitor friends. Remember -- we had only one outhouse, one kerosene burner for our cooking, a 5 gallon tub of water for all inside washing, one outside pump for washing clothes, and, during our last year, one very small kerosene-powered fridge.

Our visitors always enjoyed an elephant ride. Being the only SIL village allocation near the king's elephant camp, we were a popular destination for many of our friends. Note the ladder Ethan included in his drawing! The elephant driver was called a mahut and he directed the rides through jungles to see rhinos, tigers and anything else alive in the fields

Most visitors were immensely helpful and spent time with with Jon and Jenny who gladly gave them the village tour. Our village neighbors loved our kids--Jenny especially as she had a Tharu name! (In Tharu, jeni means "woman", or female in general.) Jonathan is demonstrating how to use the village pump! He was strong enough to bring in a small pail of water.

The visitors also gave me time to do medical work and literacy instruction while Bill worked on some initial Bible translation of the book of Mark. Many of the people we lived with had never seen or held books. We brought some National Geographic magazines to teach them how to look and hold a book. They didn't know how to interpret the pictures or hold it right side up. I had to start from scratch with initial steps to literacy.

You can see in the picture, taken in our downstairs living area, how two young women found it fascinating that they could read and write their own language. We enjoyed our times together. Usually only men learned to read and only some of them. Today it is different as schools are more numerous.

This was Jonathan's kindergarten year which meant that in the village I was his teacher. In Kathmandu, the SIL base had a school where kids attended, so we followed that curriculum. Teaching went well most of the time. But we all found it challenging at times, especially when Jenny wanted to interrupt. But I enjoyed getting back into teaching letters and sounds and numbers and all!

Jonathan was a quick learner ... and so was Jenny. While I was teaching Jonathan, Jenny was listening and soon began to read too. At two, she was an early reader for sure! But they did (and do!) love each other and played together well.

During one village stay we had another visitor--a well-known Christian author. He chartered a plane, flew down from Kathmandu for one only day, ate one meal at Kissan's house, flew back, and then published an embarrassing (unrealistic) view of our village people in an article about this visit. (We still have it if anyone wants to see it.) Amazing how people think one or two days in a village can make you an expert on a culture and people! The longer we were there the less we felt we knew.

Bill made one great addition to our village home this year--a "front porch" with a swing for Jenny and Jon. They loved that swing. You can see Jon sitting in the background on the front step in the shade waiting his turn.

Another interesting sight you may see outside our village door, on a cold morning, is some neighbors roasting breakfast over a fire. Yes, that's a field mouse on the spit; a delicacy they enjoyed ... as well as other respectable critters. You might wonder if we ever ate a roast mouse as a treat. Fortunately, in the Hindu caste structure, each caste has it's own dietary restrictions. As members of the "American caste" we were thereby able to avoid giving offence when we declined.

OK, some more village scenes: First, Jonathan having a swim in the local river, then our backyard which was an elephant trail, and finally another form of transportation which was very bumpy. The kids and I were being given the royal treatment to attend a wedding in another village.

Fire in Devauli, the VW Van that Crossed Rivers, Many Visitors, and a Miraculous Trip Back to Kathmandu

After two eventful months in the village, we returned from the village for the summer monsoon season in Kathmandu. Kissan and his family came and stayed with us until they heard that there had been a fire in our village and 23 houses were burned. They were, of course, concerned and soon left to check it out. Only Kissan returned. His house was spared, but many others were in need. Grandson Joshua drew his version of the houses on fire here. He put in a fire truck, not realizing that fire trucks did not exist there.

The rest of the summer was good and full of God's provision. Some USAID families were leaving and gave us their food and we were grateful for extra food provisions. From my journal:

Bobgans [friends in the US] packed a suitcase for us that came with Dick Hugoniot, so now Jon and Jenny have some new toys and are having great fun with their Doctor and Nurse kits.

We also were able to sell our little three wheeled rickshaw vehicle and purchase a used VW from some UMN missionaries from Butwol who were leaving. We were thrilled that we would have a vehicle to take us to and from the village. Little did we know what adventures soon awaited us in our "new" van.

During this summer I began to have severe migraine headaches. Nothing seemed to help. It also meant Bill went to the village without us while I stayed with the kids for a short time. When we finally all made it back to the village as a family, I forgot to bring my journal but wrote this summary in my journal on our return after two months:

It's been quite a time. We had a wild trip to the village. Rivers were flooded. We had a truck tow us across the Rapti river in our new-to-us van. Bill knew it was risky so had the kids and me ride in the truck that was towing the van and him. Halfway through, the rope pulling it broke from the strong current. We started to pray.

Bill saw the rope break and he began to be carried by the current. Because the van was heavier in the back and it was rear wheel drive, the current pushed the front more than the rear so the front was pointing down-stream at about 45 degrees. Bill put the van in reverse and started driving. With the river pushing the van down-stream and the engine pulling it up-stream, he managed to drive back across to the bank where we started. As Bill said later, "Halfway to India and I didn't even have my passport."

We found another truck driver who had a chain and he pulled us all the way across. Whew. But that's not all. A bit later there was another, somewhat smaller river to cross. Bill tried driving across it and got stuck in soft sand. There we sat, wondering how we were going to make it. Then a bus full of people came by. The driver stopped and asked if he could help. He did, pulling us out and across. The passengers enjoyed the show. But now the van wouldn't start. So Bill looked around inside the van and finally found a dry piece of cloth. He took the distributor cap off, carefully dried everything, and put it back together.

Then the starter motor wouldn't work. Fortunately, by this time a small crowd had formed and they gave us a push. Bill popped the clutch, the engine started, and we finished our trip to the village at last, only 12 hours after leaving Kathmandu. I meanwhile passed out the fried chicken I had prepared for our supper.

This event was later drawn by Gracella Cunkle, an artist friend. The story was later published in the magazine Christian Conquest, as a children's story as one of a series called "The Adventures of Jon and Jenny." This story was called, "Miracle at the River."

The return trip up the Raj Path to Kathmandu was better than the one down. We did  however have two flat tires and only one spare. Bill managed to patch the last one with a bike tire kit and miraculously it held! Oh, but that's not all. Here's from Bill:

After fixing the second flat, Bill was feeling pretty tired and didn't tighten the wheel's lug nuts adequately. Shortly after arriving in Kathmandu he was driving up a hill when all of a sudden the van stopped moving. He checked: the engine was on; the transmission was in gear. Nothing. He got out to look around. Something seemed a bit strange. Then he saw that the lug nuts had come out and the wheel had come off the axle. But instead of falling into the street, it came to rest in the wheel well. A moment later, a small boy came running up with a lug nut. Bill offered a rupee each for all he could find (a princely sum at 10 rupees to the dollar in a country where a day's wage for a laborer was 50 cents) and altogether there were three: enough to put the tire back on and drive safely. Yes, God is good.

Accusations and Healings, Pulling Teeth, the King's Coronation, 2 Deaths, and Cherry Pits

We also experienced some difficult accusations that cut to our core. From my journal:

Sita Ram has been trying to slander us here in the village--telling lies about us and telling people to not associate with us because we were Christians. The Lord will justify Himself without our help.

During this village stay, someone also started stealing things from our home--a picture off the wall, books, toilet paper, and then used crayons to write on our car. It hurt, but we prayed for that person or persons and forgave them. But healings also continued:

A few days ago we were called down to see Somol's daughter who was in a state of fear with a high fever. We told them that we had no medicine for this but would like to pray for her in Jesus' Name so we did. And the Lord healed her. That night another lady came and asked us to pray for her hand. We did, but it was not better. Today she came and asked me to pray again. Kunti was with us and explained about faith in Christ since she [the lady] thought at first we were "jankries"--witch doctors. So we prayed for her too.

We also had a wonderful visit from Dudley and Mona Henderson, missionaries with the Assemblies of God. Dudley was a dentist and he came to help our village people who needed dental work. Most of our Tharu friends had never seen a dentist and their teeth were in bad shape. Dudley spent most of the time pulling teeth. But they with their two kids also got in an elephant ride too!

Soon after this came a real time of isolation and loneliness. Our normal arrangement for mail was to have it sent down once a week from Kathmandu by plane. We would catch a ride into Bharatpur and eagerly wait for the RNAC plane to come with mail for us. Reading mail and news from home was a big event. But when the King's coronation came, this was a HUGE event for the country as seen in the photo. For three weeks we had no flights and no mail delivery. It looked like everything, including flights with our mail, were cancelled for the coronation celebration. Stores closed, all work stopped, and people stayed home.

When mail finally started to arrive after the coronation, the unexpected happened:

I received a letter from mom telling of my father's death. It hurt to tears. I had sent him a Living Bible for Christmas. My hope is that he read it and changed his bitterness and anger to hope and joy. Then another significant death happened.

A new baby of our friends who ran the local tea shop was quite sick. The baby had not nursed for several days and was dehydrated. We knew IVs were needed but there were none available. So yesterday we lost our first baby and our hearts were saddened. We had prayed and laid hands on the child, and soon thereafter it died. We were reminded of how God had recently spared Jonathan's life with IVs and could only surmise that the Lord wanted this little one with Him.

This village stay was full of challenges and some funny things too. The governor of Chitwan District and three of his friends came for dinner in our small village house. I made a cherry pie for dessert. I used a special and expensive can of cherries I had purchased in a shop in Kathmandu. What I didn't know was that the cherries still had the pits and lots of added sugar! We simply told our guests that this was how we ate cherry pie and to put the pits at the side of their plates. Can you see the pits in the cherry pie Ethan drew?

Jonathan's Life Is Spared and Jenny Gets Hepatitis

In early February we planned to return to the village. The schedule was for Feb. 4th, but we weren't ready with supplies so we had to delay til the 7th. From my journal:

During this time Jonathan became ill with fever, diarrhea and vomiting. By Feb. 5th we took him to the doctor at Shanta Bhawan hospital. Bill took Jonathan into the bathroom so he could vomit again and he just fainted from dehydration into Bill's arms. Bill took him back to the doctor's office. Jonathan was in shock. It took three quarts of IV fluids and several days in the hospital before he started looking human again. 

Dr. Nietzhke [his pediatrician] said "It's a good thing you came when you did. I wonder what you would have done if you had been in the village when this happened." We knew what we would have done. We would have have prayed and trusted God as we did each time. During this time I read Watchman Nee's biography and found a new release. I'm not only "free to fail" but "free to be sick." Abiding in Him there is no fear, for the consequences are His.

Isn't it good how He orders our days and rearranges "our plans" for our own protection and good? We gave thanks for how God spared Jonathan's life and that he was better within several. We returned to the village on the 12th, "even though now he's quite skinny--and our Tharu friends are all commenting on how thin he is." But he was still well enough to play with the village boys on the haystacks!

We were, and are, grateful that He left Jonathan with us. Soon after this,

Jenny became quite sick and came down with hepatitis. Our landlady wanted to call a guru (medicine man) to do puja (incantations) for her. I tried to explain that Jesus will make her well. Show them Your love, Lord." Meanwhile we prayed for Jenny while she experienced the pain and then the healing.  Here she is with one of Tinkertoy creations in front of our home in Kathmandu with one of our chickens nonchalantly crossing her path.